If you could have picked a Pope for the 20th Century

[Dempsey1919]

I believe that the Holy Spirit has always made the right decision.

 

[Confused_1_1]

This is stupid. All this happened because it was God’s will and it is clear that is so because of the great popes we have had, namely John Paul II who did so much.

It’s an insult to suggest otherwise. Pope Paul VI’s Humanae Vitae was the foundation for Theology of the Body, something that changed the lives of many Catholics.

 

[Confused_1_1]

Humanae Vitae- proof the Pope truly, truly is infallible!

Amen.

 

[JuanCarlos]

This is stupid. All this happened because it was God’s will and it is clear that is so because of the great popes we have had, namely John Paul II who did so much.

It’s an insult to suggest otherwise. Pope Paul VI’s Humanae Vitae was the foundation for Theology of the Body, something that changed the lives of many Catholics.

Not every pope was a Leo I or Pius X you know. Thee have been truly evil men who have occupied the Papal throne. Popes that have decreed many awful things. The Holy Spirit does not *actively * guide the Pope IMHO, I believe He passively just keeps proclomations the Pope says from being doctrinally wrong.

Remember, we have had heretic popes too, like Honorius. Becoming Pope is not a surefire way to making great decisions.

 

[SemperFidelis]

Not every pope was a Leo I or Pius X you know. Thee have been truly evil men who have occupied the Papal throne. Popes that have decreed many awful things. The Holy Spirit does not *actively * guide the Pope IMHO, I believe He passively just keeps proclomations the Pope says from being doctrinally wrong.

Remember, we have had heretic popes too, like Honorius. Becoming Pope is not a surefire way to making great decisions.

It goes back to people thinking the Pope is impeccable, instead of infallible. Geez, is it to hard to realize that there have been bad Popes, in fact several of them (not aimed at you Juan Carlos, but others). There are no bad fruits of the Holy Ghost. To say he protected the conclaves that elected Alexander VI, etc. is ridiculous. The Holy Ghost would not err like that. He protected their infallibility while they were Popes, but that doesn’t mean they were good Popes, or that they didn’t make several personal errors, or even that the Holy Ghost wanted them to be Popes.

 

[bones_IV]

Definitely Cardinal Siri. He was very orthodox and very Traditional. If he would have been elected in 1958, he would have been Pope for 31 years, and it would have been the second longest Papal reign right behind Bl. Pius IX. There are some who even claim he was elected, in '58, '63, and '78. Some wild claims to say the least. The Church would probably find itself in a far different situation today had Cardinal Siri been Pope.

Really? Vatican II limited the damage if any.

 

[SemperFidelis]

Really? Vatican II limited the damage if any.

That’s one opinion, but not THE opinion. I know many who would disagree with you.

 

[ASimpleSinner]

Can you imagine a High Papal Divine Liturgy? It gives me goosebumps just thinking about it…

Its been done - JP2 & Bl J23 did it on more than one occasion. Should a “Greek” be called to fill the Roman see, as in the past, I expect he would (like the 8 other Greek popes) follow “when in Rome…”

Oh, right. I remember rumors that Patriarch Alexy II was a KGB agent.

More than arumor.

Or see here Putin’s Espionage Church:
cicentre.com/Documents/putin_espionage_church.html

Patriarch Comrade Blackbird (Druzdov)… Its impolitic to talk about…

His namesake… Aleksi I… There was a fellow to pick as a namesake…

time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,855308,00.html?promoid=googlep

Pope Pius XII last week challenged the unholy alliance between Atheist Joseph Stalin and his tame churchman, the Patriarch Alexei of Moscow, head of the Orthodox Church in Russia. The Pope charged that Russia was ruthlessly stamping out Roman Catholicism in Ruthenia, implied that Alexei was Stalin’s eager catspaw.

In a 10,000-word encyclical devoted wholly to the situation in Ruthenia, a Czechoslovak province ceded to Russia last June, the Pope asked: “Who doesn’t know that Patriarch Alexei, recently elected by the dissident Russian bishops, directed a letter to-the Ruthenian Church, which wants nothing to do with the dissidents, in which he openly preached desertion from the Catholic Church?”

The Ruthenian persecution was important in itself, and also as an example of Stalin’s use of the Orthodox Church to further Communism’s Pan-Slavic program in southeastern Europe. But the Pope’s encyclical highlighted an even more important global aspect of the Stalin-Alexei alliance, which had recently reached imperiously into the U.S. Last month the Russian Orthodox hierarchy of the U.S. and Canada, who cut loose from Moscow in 1917, met in Chicago. They heard the Patriarch Alexei’s delegate demand submission to Moscow. In pious language, they told him to peddle his Moscovite peanuts elsewhere. Metropolitan Theophilus of San Francisco, a stout believer in freedom for conscience and for God’s church, told Alexei to repeal his Ukase 94 of last February. Key section of that ukase: Orthodox Churchmen in North and South America must “abstain from all political activity against the U.S.S.R.”

Alexei’s other activities in behalf of Holy Communist Russia include close contacts through the Middle East. Last summer he made a state visit to his fellow Patriarchs of Alexandria, Jerusalem and Antioch. Thus Stalin, who is already playing footie with the Muslems of the Middle East, has also got a means of influencing the Levantine Orthodox Christians.

Also worth asking: How is it the case that North Korean “Orthodox seminarians” have been allowed to go to Moscow? Did someone sit down and have a good “Come to Jesus” talk with Kim Il Jung? I wonder…